1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data processing systems, and more particularly, to bridge systems including mechanisms for transferring information between buses.
2. Description of Related Art
Computers can use buses to transfer data between a host processor and various devices, such as memory devices and input/output devices. As used herein an "input/output" device is a device that either generates an input or receives an output (or does both). Thus "input/output" is used in the disjunctive. These buses may be arranged in a hierarchy with the host processor connected to a high level bus reserved for exchanging the data most urgently needed by the processor. Lower level buses may connect to devices having a lower priority.
Other reasons exist for providing separate buses. Placing an excessive number of devices on one bus produces high loading. Such loading makes a bus difficult to drive because of the power needed and the delays caused by signaling so many devices. Also, some devices on a bus may periodically act as a master and request control over a bus in order to communicate with a slave device. By segregating some devices on a separate bus, master devices can communicate with other devices on the lower level bus without tying up the bus used by the host processor or other masters.
The PCI bus standard is specified by the PCI Special Interest Group of Hillsboro, Oreg. The PCI bus features a 32-bit wide, multiplexed address-data (AD) bus portion, and can be expanded to a 64-bit wide AD bus portion. Maintaining a high data throughput rate (e.g., a 33 MHZ clock rate) on the PCI bus leads to a fixed limitation on the number of electrical AC and DC loads on the bus. Speed considerations also limit the physical length of the bus and the capacitance that can be placed on the bus by the loads, while future PCI bus rates (e.g., 66 MHZ) will exacerbate the electrical load and capacitance concerns. Failure to observe these load restrictions can cause propagation delays and unsynchronized operation between bus devices.
To circumvent these loading restrictions, the PCI bus standard specifies a bridge to allow a primary PCI bus to communicate with a secondary PCI bus through such a bridge. Additional loads may be placed on the secondary bus without increasing the loading on the primary bus. For bridges of various types see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,548,730 and 5,694,556.
The PCI bridge observes a hierarchy that allows an initiator or bus master on either bus to complete a transaction with a target on the other bus. As used herein, hierarchy refers to a system for which the concept of a higher or lower level has meaning. For example, a PCI bus system is hierarchical on several scores. An ordering of levels is observed in that a high level host processor normally communicates from a higher level bus through a bridge to a lower level bus. An ordering of levels is also observed in that buses at equal levels do not communicate directly but through bridges interconnected by a higher level bus. Also, an ordering of levels is observed in that data is filtered by their addresses before being allowed to pass through a bridge, based on the levels involved. Other hierarchical systems exist that may observe an ordering of levels by using one or more of the foregoing concepts, or by using different concepts.
Some personal computers have slots for add-on cards, which allow the card to connect to a peripheral bus in the computer. Because a user often needs additional slots, expansion cards have been designed that will connect between the peripheral bus and an external unit that offers additional slots for add-on cards. For systems for expanding a bus, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,006,981; 5,191,657; and 5,335,329. See also U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,252.
For portable computers, special considerations arise when the user wishes to connect additional peripheral devices. Often a user will bring a portable computer to a desktop and connect through a docking station or port replicator to a keyboard, monitor, printer or the like. A user may also wish to connect to a network through a network interface card in the docking station. At times, a user may need additional devices such as hard drives or CD-ROM drives. While technically possible to a limited extent, extending a bus from a portable computer through a cable is difficult because of the large number of wires needed and because of latencies caused by a cable of any significant length.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,696,949 a host chassis has a PCI to PCI bridge that connects through a cabled bus to another PCI to PCI bridge in an expansion chassis. This system is relatively complicated since two independent bridges communicate over a cabled bus. This cabled bus includes essentially all of the lines normally found in a PCI bus. This approach employs a delay technique to deal with clock latencies associated with the cabled bus. A clock signal generated on the expansion side of the cabled bus: (a) is sent across the cabled bus, but experiences a delay commensurate with the cable length; and (b) is delayed an equivalent amount on the expansion side of the cabled bus by a delay line there, before being used on the expansion side. Such a design complicates the system and limits it to a tuned cable of a pre-designed length, making it difficult to accommodate work spaces with various physical layouts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,377 shows a primary PCI bus in a portable computer being connected to a PCI to PCI bridge in a docking station. When docked, the primary and secondary buses are physically very close. A cable is not used to allow separation between the docking station and the portable computer. With this arrangement, there is no interface circuitry between the primary PCI bus and the docking station. See also U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,529.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,597 suggests avoiding additional PCMCIA connectors when connecting a peripheral device to a PC card slot in a portable computer, but does not otherwise disclose any relevant bridging techniques.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,702 and show a programmable controller for controlling industrial machines and processes. The system exchanges data serially with a variety of input/output modules. One of these modules may be replaced with an expansion module that can serially communicate with several groups of additional input/output modules. This system is not bridge-like in that the manner of communicating with the expansion module is different than the manner of communicating with the input/output modules. For the expansion module the system changes to a block transfer mode where a group of status bytes are transferred for all the expansion devices. This system is also limited to input/output transactions and does not support a variety of addressable memory transactions. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,413,319; and 4,504,927.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,525 another bus designed for instrumentation (IEEE 488 General Purpose Instrumentation Bus) connects to an extender that breaks the bus information into packets that are sent serially through a transmission cable to another extender. This other extender reconstructs the serial packets into parallel data that is applied to a second instrumentation bus. This extender is an intelligent system operating through a message interpretation layer and several other layers before reaching the parallel to serial conversion layer. Thus this system is unlike a bridge. This system is also limited in the type of transactions that it can perform. See also U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,833.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,491 shows a system for interfacing a local bus to a cable with a large number of wires for interfacing with remote peripherals. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,800,097; 4,787,029; 4,961,140; and 5,430,847.
The Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) defines bus standards for a variety of peripheral devices. This SCSI bus is part of an intelligent system that responds to high-level commands. Consequently, SCSI systems require software drivers to enable hardware to communicate to the SCSI bus. This fairly complicated system is quite different from bridges such as bridges as specified under the PCI standard. A variety of other complex techniques and protocols exist for transferring data, including Ethernet, Token Ring, TCP/IP, ISDN, FDDI, HIPPI, ATM, Fibre Channel, etc., but these bear little relation to bridge technology.
See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,954,949; 5,038,320; 5,111,423; 5,446,869; 5,495,569; 5,497,498; 5,507,002; 5,517,623; 5,530,895; 5,542,055; 5,555,510; 5,572,688; and 5,611,053.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system for transferring information between buses.